Canepa: Chargers have suffered a total, unmitigated defeat

The Chargers weren’t caught with their slips showing. They were caught buck naked. Raw. Exposed like a Royal Family Internet photograph.

Except there was no chance of anything this ugly going viral.

Sunday afternoon the blacked-out Chargers chose to wear their all-white flags. If they didn’t surrender in their humbling, 27-3 in-house defeat to the Atlanta Falcons -- the first time in 151-straight games they failed to score a touchdown -- then what shall we call it?

Maybe it’s best summed up by what Winston Churchill said after Britain dropped the ball at Munich: ”We have suffered a total, unmitigated defeat.” Chargers General manager A.J. Smith loves Churchill. My guess is he won’t be framing that quote.

Whatever it was, they stunk? Virtually everything they tried to do against the Falcons, who came across country after playing Monday night, either failed or failed miserably. It’s simple. They couldn’t stop the Falcons and the Falcons could stop them.

It was easy to see the Chargers losing this game because the Falcons are better and far more experienced than they are. But Atlanta was working on a short week, was banged up at cornerback and the Chargers at least had looked half-way decent against two inferior opponents.

But they lost this one pretty much right away. They had one chance and one chance only. That came in the second quarter after the teams exchanged punts following Atlanta’s march to a touchdown on its first possession to lead 6-0 (there was a botched extra-point snap).

With top tailback Ryan Mathews back in gear after recovering from the broken clavicle he suffered in the first exhibition game, the Chargers actually moved the ball smartly. Quarterback Philip Rivers found wideout Malcom Floyd for two nice gains and San Diego was in business.

The hosts had a first down at Atlanta’s 7 when Mathews darted to the four. Problem. He lost the football. The Falcons recovered. They then again drove the length of the field to score. That made it 13-0, and if the Chargers weren’t dead, extreme unction was the first sacrament available.

“I just have to learn how to go down instead of trying to get the extra yard,” Mathews would say.

There aren’t many running backs who don’t try to get the extra yard. It’s in their nature. You don’t fumble the ball there. You just don’t. Guys who can run like the dickens and fumble are coach-killers. They go around putting pink slips under their coach’s windshield wipers.

Mathews is a talent. He can run. But when you’re injury-and-fumble-prone, your days in the NFL are limited.

“Ryan is Ryan -- he’s fast, he’s physical, he’s competitive,” Chargers coach Norv Turner said. “Obviously, we need to get him to a point where he secures the ball every play. He’s capable of doing it.”

In practice?

As Norv pointed out, two years ago his team was ruined by turnovers inside the red zone (not to mention horrendous special teams play). The Chargers are not at the point where they can afford to leave points on the field. They did it far too many times last year and they won’t go anywhere in 2012 if they can’t protect the football.